There has long been desired a way of wearing one's watch which permits freedom of the use of both hands yet safeguards the watch from damage, as costly a possession as fine watches can be. Similarly it has been desired to enable color, design and style coordination of the watch with the wearer's wardrobe, mood, and social or business setting in which the watch is to be worn.
It is also desirable to be able to vary the type or design of watch in accordance with the wearer's activity, e.g., athletic or sedentary, while permitting frequency of observation of time to be readily controlled by the wearer. These and other objectives have led to various efforts in the prior art to attempt to accomplish such objectives, which objectives have been met with varying success by a variety of structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,383,968 issued to C. Perry, Jr., et al is directed to a watch belt buckle wherein a watch (15) is mounted within buckle (3) having circular opening (13) in belt (1) in a reverse upside down fashion with the dials and indicia numbers facing inwardly and concealed by the curved watch backplate (FIG. 1) which forms the outwardly curved central surface of the buckle. The front face (14) of watch (15) is retained by a snap catch (16) struck out of the top edge (16') which engages stem (17) of watch (15). The watch case is preferably provided with a hook portion (18) integral therewith hinged in recess (19) of the front side (5) intermediate of the belt buckle to retain the front face (14) of the watch in its reverse position within opening (13) when the watch is in its normal (closed) position. When the stem (17) is released from the catch (16), the front face of the watch flips down approximately 180.degree. (FIG. 2) permitting the wearer to observe the time either by tilting his/her head downwardly, or by rotating buckle (3) or watch (15) upwardly; or by a combination of both maneuvers.
In the modified form (FIG. 6), a hook (18a) is placed on the bottom of watch (15a), which is hinged to a vertical pintle (19a) to which a hinge member (2a) is secured. In this form watch (15a) lies entirely within the buckle, and belt (1a) passes through the buckle and in back of the watch. Then the wearer must turn the buckle away from his/her body to observe the time. Note that in this modification, the watch stem is mounted parallel to the long axis of the belt and no provision is made for flip down of the watch front face.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,382,256 issued to L. Tomchin is directed to a watch that is readily convertible into a wrist watch or pendant for wear either around the wrist or neck. There is no teaching in Tomchin of a waist watch. Tomchin is directed to an interchangeable pendant watch (FIG. 1) or a wrist watch (FIGS. 2 & 5) due to the provision of detachable coupling devices permitting attachment of the watch to flexible connections adapting it either for wrist or neck wear. A plurality of differently positioned peripheral coupling shoulders (c, c) on watch casing (C) via coupling members (A, A) or (A) enable the Tomchin watch to be used as a wrist or pendant watch, respectively. Watch (W) is shown mounted upside down as a pendant watch (FIG. 1) and wrist watch (FIGS. 2 & 5).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,182,194 issued to A. S. Blau is directed to a watch mounting which is a belt, or strap of a wrist watch (right col., 11. 7-9). The watch (12) having a side stem (14) has a case of any desired shape/configuration desirably shaped for special cooperation with mounting member plate (10). The Blau watch face is concealed and faces inwardly as worn. Watch (12) is mounted with its face surface in contact with the front face of plate (10) & secured to it by a hinge (16), one-half of which is fixed with the front face of (10) & the other half of which is fixed with the case of watch (12). Torsion spring means (18) cooperates with the two halves of hinge (16) to tension watch 12 normally urging it to swing toward one limit of its pivotable position. Catch means includes spring arm (20) secured to plate (10) opposite from hinge (16), and has struck tooth portion 22) cooperating with abutment (24) at the upper edge of the watch to hold it in its normal position. To observe time, the wearer presses the outer end of catch (20) outwardly away from watch (12) thus releasing tooth (20) from abutment (24). Watch (12) then swings downwardly and outwardly about its hinge axis to its dotted line position thus exposing the face of watch (12).
Ordinarily it will be desirable that hinge structure (16) be on the far side of the watch from the eye of the wearer when the watch is positioned to be read so that in opening up its face will be brought into substantially perpendicular relationship with respect to the wearer's line of vision (page 3, left col., 11. 18-24).
U.S. Pat. No. 1,278,866 issued to R. A. Thompson is directed to a belt-watch holder designed for clipping on a waist belt adjacent to its belt buckle. Watch (3) is contained in generally rectangular oblong holder (2) and secured to belt (1) and held in place via clasp member (10) and companion clasp member (11) of attaching strap (8). Outer strip (member) (4) of holder (2) is provided with a central annular flange or rim (12). Watch (3) can be mounted upside down as show in FIG. 1. No mechanism is provided, contemplated, or apparently feasible within the framework of the Thompson structure to flip watch (3) up .about.90.degree. for permitting the wearer to check the time with merely a downward glance. There is no stated provision made for fashion coordination of watch face, with belt or wearer's clothing, eye color, etc. There is no contemplation of a readily removable connection of buckles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,410 issued to E. Reisman is directed to a key belt which can have a watch (21) substituted for the wearer's house key (FIGS. 5 and 6). The watch casing is secured to a mounting plate (20) one end (20a) of which is bent or crimped about the outer portion of a loop member (11') and the other end of the mounting plate is bent in the form of a hook (20b) adapted to be passed through the other loop member (12') of the belt. The watch (21) serves a non-fastening function of the main belt buckle.